THE COST of a basket of popular grocery items has risen slightly for the first time in more than six months, in what has been suggested could signal the end of supermarket price wars.

Although the increase is just a few pence - up from £86.60 in May to £86.84 in June - the groceries website mySupermarket.co.uk said it was closely monitoring whether this marked the beginning of price increases.

But the cost of the average basket of 35 commonly-bought items remains 5.5 per cent less expensive than in June last year, when it cost £91.88, the website’s Groceries Tracker shows.

The products that increased in price the most between May and June were onions, up 11 per cent, bananas, up five per cent, and carrots, up 4.3 per cent. Items seeing the biggest drop in price were broccoli, down 17.3 per cent, pasta, down five per cent, and mushrooms, down 3.7 per cent.

MySupermarket chief executive Gilad Simhony said: “Although there has been only a slight increase we are closely monitoring whether this marks the beginning of price increases at supermarkets, unseen during the recent period of supermarket price wars.

“Shoppers should keep an eye on whether their favourite products are in fact going up and whether they can be found cheaper elsewhere.”